This Week...

...On Skyrim's Most Inconspicuous Assassins:



What the hell do you mean, we "look suspicious"?





Also: when you can one-shot a frost dragon, you may have abused Skyrim's enchanting and smithing abilities a bit too much. Let's see, 471 damage, times three for the sneak bonus...



Hey, while we're making silly posts no one's going to pay any attention to; do we still have that Daedric helm we found in the Witches' nest?


Yeah; I think so... it's here someplace... Here you go.





*ahem* Ebenezer Scrooge! I am the ghost of Christmas Future! If you do not change your ways, this will be your fate...


Oh, Gods...


Huh. I never figured you for a Dickens fan. Was there some rape and murder I missed in the last retelling of that insipid mess masquerading as literary classic?


No; but like every other person in the western world, I've been subjected to that shit at least a dozen times... and I dunno; while we were roaming the Reach this morning I was looking at the helm and it just kind of hit me...


Yes, but don't worry, audience at home -- I, the demon, am clearly the insane and dangerous one.


I never liked Dickens. So depressing.


Yeah? Well take it from someone who was there: so was Victorian London.


Knock off the fucking social commentary. I'm trying to be either charmingly or disturbingly random. You know, whichever.


Uh huh.


Nos thought it was funny.


Master also thinks farts are funny. What's your point?


Hey, screw you! There's nothing funnier than a beautiful, elegant lady leaning to one side to let one rip completely at random.


You are so gross... And why are you laughing?


...Because it's funny? The Ghost of Christmas Future has spoken!


...Someone find me a bottle of Dwemer jet fuel or something. I don't think mead's going to get me through tonight...

A Return to Faerun

As I mentioned on Herculine's blog the other day, her post about OHS for Neverwinter Nights sufficiently tempted me that I had to download and give the game a try with my girls.



I created the necessary portraits from the latest decently-lit set of Skyrim shots I had -- assuming Skyrim to be more NWN friendly than one of the Fallouts -- and created them as PCs, then converting to companions via OHS' instructions.

It's literally a five minute procedure. Create the character as a PC as normal, rest, enter a command in the chat window, select a couple dialogue options, and that's it. They'll be ready to call in another game from then on.

Once into the main campaign I rested to get the "link boy" on my own character, and then summoned my companions. I was expecting to have to pay a fee to hire them based on the OHS documentation... but my girls were apparently having none of that and asked for no payment to accompany me.



Mystery-chan continues to scare me, even in NWN. She got Great Cleave at level four or five, and has become the fist of an angry God. Her record thus far is seven kills with one attack.

I had hoped to install better heads; but almost immediately remembered what a pain NWN is to mod the official campaigns. It refused to acknowledge the HAK unless it was added to the module in the toolset... which while possible is a bit of a pain. So I extracted the HAK into the override directory... and they still didn't show up. At this point I remember how many hours I had to fight with the game to get such things working before, and decided that with as shitty as the camera in NWN is, I wouldn't be looking that closely at their heads anyway; and just picked default ones. Natasha got a ponytail (albeit a short one) and Maeva got horns... and elf ears. Fucking D&D.

Sadly, they never updated the original campaign to sell metal and cloth dye... so we're pretty much stuck with whatever Pride Parade colors the armor comes in. Since we're at the start of chapter two and haven't done any quests yet, I'll probably export my character, pop into another module, and pick up a few items like that.

Playing with them along is fun; but I have to admit I'm developing serious ambivalence for OHS itself. There's no variation. Both Mystery-chan and Maeva are fighters, and both get the exact same feats -- thus far they're being shoehorned into longsword specialization and focus. This irks me, as Mystery-chan is supposed to use a bastard sword (and got the exotic weapons feat during character creation) but is having feats wasted on longsword. Maeva is supposed to use a greatsword, but is similarly being shoved directly into genericville. If they were taking divergent paths -- one going longsword, one going warhammer or something -- I could accept it as just the way they were evolving in that game... but they're going to be totally identical apparently, as OHS only has one advancement path for each class.

It's been awhile since I scripted in Aurora, but I remember the thing having random number generators or something similar, so I would have thought something more like "if #=1, path 1" "if #=2, path 2" et cetera. Something so that multiple followers of the same class wouldn't level up as clones of each other. Then again, as I said I haven't scripted in Aurora in years, so that may not have been feasible.

There's no method for manual level up from within the campaign. Your two choices are autolevel and get cookie-cutter perk lists, or don't level at all. If you don't have them level at all, they save up the experience; and you can convert the character from a follower back to a player; take them into another module, level up with your choice of feats, and then re-save them as followers. I didn't know the method off the top of my head, so I just let them autolevel to see how it went. Clearly, I am going to have to familiarize myself with the manual level up procedure -- even if that means removing and re-adding them as followers every level. Which will be a pain.

Natasha is a sorcerer class (since I didn't even want to think about the automated mechanics of learning specific spells and such) and while the spells are going okay... she for some reason got the "Brew Potion" feat awhile back. Which would be okay I guess except that I can't find any way to have her brew potions... so it's a complete wasted feat -- and I wouldn't have thought sorcerers get enough to waste. Gods apparently forbid she get combat casting or maximized spell or spell focus or something else actually useful. Also, for the life of me I can not find a way to get her to summon her familiar. I remember being able to do that with normal game henchmen.

So, much like in other games, the existing companion systems just aren't doing it for me... but I suppose I'll have to learn to deal with it since I don't want to learn how to script in Aurora all over again. Hopefully, exporting, leveling, and re-importing the girls every level won't be a huge pain in my ass.

Other Skyrim Shots

Some other shots I took lately that didn't really fit in with the last post:


Firstly, new character and companion for a paired game:





Won't bore everyone going into the backstory we came up with or anything.

I will say though, that on looking at that second shot, I just now realized how truly atrocious the default texture is tiled on that breastplate. Lazy, even by Bethsoft's standard. Wow.

Characters came out pretty good, though; even if I am having trouble de-neoning that red hair.


I did some more work on Katheryn for a player character who is a necromancer with a thing for the undead (vampires, of course, being one of the pinnacles of such things). I think she turned out pretty good:



Be nice if you could get decent looking UNPB light armor that didn't show so blasted much skin, though.

Still, I guess it's not like vampires have to worry about frostbite...


While we were smacking dremora to get the Razor, I liked the lighting inside the shrine well enough to take this one of my own avatar:



I had to add glasses despite the lore-unfriendly-ness just because I find that after a couple years and change of wearing them, the me-analogs just don't look right without them anymore.

Also: I have found my preferred armor in the game. That's the Ebony Mail (reward from Boethiah for killin' lots in her name), with standard ebony gauntlets, boots, and shield. Usually wear an ebony helm, too. I'm also wearing a potion carrying bandoleer and some pouches that you can't see for the shield. You can see some other pouches on the back of Natasha's belt in front of me, and Mystery-chan's belt, bandoleer, and shoulder-bag behind me.

Still miss having a proper hair style. After having it in Oblivion, FO3, and FNV, I cannot fathom why Beth felt the need to remove the slicked-back hair from the list for Skyrim. Some of us don't like looking like Vikings or hippies, damn it.




Here I just felt like switching over to my sunglasses and looking like a total arrogant douche. That Jarl sitting animation on the thrones is hilariously bad.

I may have to see how that Ebony Mail looks with the blue color-shifted to red. Probably hot-topic-y... but you don't know if you don't try, right?

...Also, I'm apparently going to have to try to retexture that heavy Imperial armor. That's just painful...

...As Chinese Algebra?

As I've mentioned before, since the /V/-/VG/ split at the chan of less than five but more than three, I've taken to reading the TES generals threads.

...Probably too much, but I've got that kind of time on my hands lately.

The other day, I saw someone bitching about how it was very hard -- effectively impossible -- to make a "demon" follower in Skyrim who didn't look like a whore.

Really? Sorry, I have to dissent and disagree:








Oh, don't get me wrong: I'm not going to say it's no effort. Any decent companion takes a lot of effort. Designing, refining, testing -- and that's if you don't go the personal equipment route. Once you start creating equipment just for them, you get to get into mesh and texture editing, and the effort multiplies.

But "hard"? No, not really.

I had a mess of tips typed out; but I'm sure it'll just draw some criticism or trolling, so fuck it. I'm sure you can figure it out on your own if you're interested.

Things Learned During the Purge

So, I finally got around to purging the Picasa account tonight (you were warned).

Managed to free up around 300mb; which should keep me uploading for some time to come. Vast majority of the purges were either redundant (RR screenshots that are uploaded to the Nexus file entries as well) or were showing off mods that I ended up never releasing or never finishing.

So... you may notice some broken images now in old posts. I'm not going through more than six hundred and fifty posts one by one looking for them, though.

One thing I noticed though, looking through screenshots from 2009 was just how far my abilities as a companion maker have come. Those old works were just... embarrassing. Not only in setup, but in my visual settings, too. Yikes all around.

Also trashed the rose garden and waterfall photos because no one really cares about trip photos (even me who took them, apparently). They were just wasting space. Kept the ECSA photos because hey; who doesn't like to see cars set ablaze by 20mm incendiary fire?

Also kept the firearm and gunsmithing photos -- not because I think anyone online gives a shit about them; but because I give a shit about them, and wanted an online backup. Being as there's nothing illegal going on in them, I see no reason to set the folders to hidden or anything dramatic like that.

Anyhow, the cleaned space should allow for three hundred forty or so new screenshots at the current video settings I use in the games, and will probably still have free space left when you've all forgotten I exist.

STALKER, Bethsoft Style?

So, I know I'm not big on relating actual... y'know, news around here -- mostly opting instead to bore everyone with drivel about my silly little mods -- but this caught my attention enough that I had to comment.

Apparently, Bethesda just bought the rights to STALKER.

Theory is that it's likely to use the new(ish) Skyrim/"Creation" engine.

I'm torn on this. On the one hand, Bethsoft is... Bethsoft. If they do a STALKER title we can expect only a half dozen voice actors, huge plot holes, and horrific bugs that may or may not ever be fully fixed.

On the other hand, we also get the almost obscenely easy to mod Creation engine; which has the potential to make up for all that and more still.

I've always loved the idea of STALKER -- for those not familiar, the games follow the progress of different men sent into "the zone" (the off-limits irradiated zone around Chernobyl in the Ukraine) for various purposes. In the world of STALKER, radiation on that level is rather comic-book-y, creating horrible monsters and mutating people. However, the zone is also home to a treasure trove of "artifacts"; strange objects worth insane amounts of money in the outside world. Thus, a class of treasure hunters has moved into the zone to find the items. With the hunters came military forces, mercenaries, and scientists; all with their own plans and purposes.

The existing STALKER games are similar to our beloved/hated Gamebryo titles, in that there is not a fixed, rigidly adhered to quest chain. There are missions, but you can also bum around the zone doing as you please and just exploring, hunting phat lewtz, or what-have-you.

The problem I had with the games -- and what kept me from really getting into them -- was the solitary nature. By the time the STALKER games hit, I had been playing Oblivion and was used to sandboxing with companions. Call of Pripyat and Clear Skies both hit after FO3, and well... we don't need to go into detail about my FO3 games.

STALKER, conversely, is more akin to survival horror in that it's mostly solitary. You can, at times, hire a guide or mercenary; but aside from that your only interaction with NPCs is in camps/bases, or random patrols you run into. There's no one you can have as a member of your party; to give orders to, go where you go, et cetera. Combine that with the fact that inserting new characters into the games is an ordeal and a half, and you have a game that is not companion-monger friendly.

I've always thought that having the ability to add companions, even without the added functionality possible in FO3/NV; even if you could only have one at a time, would make the game so much better.

I dunno; I've been thinking about it a good ten minutes now, and I just can't decide whether this would be a good or bad thing.

Although, the idea of watching the Creation engine render the sunrise over the iconic Ferris wheel in Pripyat...

The idea of moving into that high-rise apartment complex overlooking said wheel and converting it into a base for my army of evil redheads...

In the thread where I saw the link, someone compared Bethsoft-made STALKER to a whole game akin to Dead Money from NV on hardcore mode. This idea... I am not as big on. I didn't much care for Dead Money; and can't say as I'd be keen on playing an entire game set in that type of area. Although I will grant that DM would have been much less annoying if not for that stupid LOLUCANTGOHERE collar; so I dunno, maybe it wouldn't suck.

Screenshot Time

Haven't been devoting as much time as I'd like to modding this week -- between feeling like a walk-on from a Romero movie and dealing with my family I haven't felt like fighting with FO3 much.

Still, I've taken a few screenies to share, and being as I have fuckall interesting to blog about this week... here you go.




I... really don't remember FO3 having night skies like that... I know I've taken a few before for Nos' Adventures, but I remember there being more of a haze, even at night. Haven't changed out any mods... but who knows.

Moving on to Skyrim:

Firstly, I don't know how many are aware of it, but Skyrim actually includes the Headless Hessian (as an Easter Egg only -- he's not used in any quests and doesn't attack anyone; only riding a preset path every night). Well, a bit back, we were adventurin' a bit west of Whiterun around sundown, and...



Kind of freaky at first, as I had read about him in the Wiki; but never actually seen him. Around the fort there is one of the most crash-happy areas in the game for me, so I don't tend to be out there much.


Also, I recently installed Climates of Tamriel; to hopefully break up the game's normal weather patterns which seem to only consist of day and night.



It's a very nice mod, which I somewhat hesitantly recommend -- I like it, but I haven't used it enough to say "this doesn't bloat saves!" so, y'know, use at your own risk and whatnot.


I've also finally found a semi-decent male light armor:



This is a copy of Geralt's armor from the Witcher series (texture edited by me to be darker), with Nightingale boots, and... I forget what the gloves are, actually. Something from the base game; I just can't remember which set I used.

Since it is male only, the female models on the armor are Hentai's Karliah II armor; which seemed to fit the same general feel.

I had tried to retexture glass armor to be less gaudy, with fairly craptastic results. If you raided my Picasa account in the odd week between when I uploaded the screens and when I decided I wasn't going to post about it after all and trashed them, you saw; but for those that didn't: Beth decided for some reason to make parts of the male glass cuirass texture partially translucent, and not editable without decoding the individual channels of the image... which also removes all color. So if you want grayscale glass it's fine... but failing that you pretty much have to partially or fully redraw the texture which I didn't want to bother doing. Which sucked, because I liked the black glass, and had just learned how to reset the mesh so that it didn't reflect green light anymore... oh well.


I've also played with some new characters.

This is a dark elf:



Who comes with two sister NPCs; the backstory being that they're refugees from Morrowind, who end up embroiled in Skyrim yadda yadda. In my defense, while it is cliche; it was also just a quick outline that I hadn't written any more detail into and probably never will. The sisters:



You may remember this companion as the previously-shown "Raven" follower. I liked the basic face I had set up for her, so used it as a base for the other two and repurposed this follower into a mage with a different name.



This one is the skirmisher of the group -- light armor, sword & board. She's also the shortest of the three because LOLIRONYAMIRITE?!

The hook with this game is that they don't smith. Upgrade and enchant, yes; but armor and weapons are find or buy only.

Thus far it's proved interesting, if... basic. Many mod authors just make their armor and weapons craftable, so you can't get them in the game world.

Astute readers may also notice that all three have facial scars -- something I previously complained did not work on NPCs. Turns out when I rooted out and purged the "improved" face tint masks that were keeping lip colors from showing up? It also made scars appear again. Only downside is scars don't show in the NPC edit window's preview; so I've been having to pick a scar at semi-random, and load the game to see which is was. I recently discovered that the scars show up on the character if you load the cell they're in, and look at them in the render window... but the cell-view in the render window has a horrible record of reliability for me -- it uses an immense amount of resources since it's essentially kicking in the game's rendering engine and displaying what you'd see in game; and this tends to overload my less than ample RAM and cause crashes/lockups/muttered threats/invocations to Old Ones From Beyond the Stars.




And this is a kill-cam. I just think they're neat.




I've also made a couple updates to my favorite Nord female character. Her scars show up now; and as you may notice I also altered hair colors as part of my Lesser companions plugin. Auburn and... whatever the one that was supposed to be red got changed to actually be redder. I'm still not happy with the auburn (the dark elves are using it). The color you see in the SuCK isn't the color you get in game, sadly; so it's very much a try-it-and-see proposition. It ended up orange rather than my intended light-brown-with-a-red-tint. I'll get it eventually -- and happily, the color changes made in plugins carry over to the player automatically (NPCs require having their facegen data re-exported for changes to show).

The proper red turned out nice, though.




My Nord female companion here showing off both her working scars, and the new red hair color.

I'm not entirely sure what I had done to earn such a look, but that screenshot is just begging for a "Skadi is not amused by your faggotry." caption.

You may also notice that red is slightly more... RED than what's pictured on the PC above. This one was the first draft; I've since toned it down a bit so as not to have every redhead in the game be day-glo.

Hm. Maybe neon hair was what she was pissed about?

Moving on.


Final entrant in my list of player ideas was this one:



Made not with a backstory in mind, but rather to see if I could make an attractive Khajiit after spending too long reading chan threads where people show off their characters.

The answer was apparently a resounding no. Back to Nords it is.






And here's the updated v2.0 of Katheryn the skinny-gothy-vampire...

Wait, let me edit that...

...vampyre. Yeah, there we go...

...Who turned out somewhat better than I had expected her to. Players of Oblivion may recall just how absolutely horrid vampires looked in that game, so I was surprised the ones in Skyrim can actually look pretty decent. You know, once you install replacers for the body, skin, face, eyes, and hair... but you have to do that for all races, so I'm not sure it's a legitimate complaint above and beyond the normal ones.

In the area of my better known companions:



Maeva thought I was insane for jumping off this tower, and didn't want to follow.




Natasha finally quipped on the way up to a ruin.




...That fucking ghost wolf is still grinning at me. I hear it laugh like Muttly in my head sometimes...




Natasha not only ashed a bandit, but sent it into low-Nirn orbit; and Maeva taunted it on its way skyward. I am surrounded by crazy people.




I just thought this one looked cool.




As did this one. She just keeps giving me those looks...




...And I caught her staring at my ass in this one when I happened to kick into third person to look at my own armor. It was a surprise, yes.




...And never turn your back on the short haired one during a fight. Those poor gamblers knew not with whom they fucked. Also grabbing someone by the back of the head and ramming a sword into the base of their spine is just plain unfriendly.

Okay, that's it for this installment. The new episode of Burn Notice is on and I'm going to forget you all exist for an hour or so, now.